Daily Market Report 01/13/12

GOLD

At 11am PDT Gold was down $15.90 for the day, trading at $1,634.80 per ounce, but up $19.80 for the week. Gold prices eased today as fears about a S&P credit downgrade of France and Austria drove the value of the U.S. Dollar higher versus the Euro.  The Euro also dropped today as talks over Greece’s debt restructuring collapsed today, an unexpected breakdown that makes it increasingly likely Athens will become the first government of a developed country in more than 60 years to suffer a full-scale default on its debt.

Gold traders were the most bullish in two months after mainland China imported the most metal ever from Hong Kong and investors bought U.S. bullion coins at the fastest pace in more than a decade.

Mainland China imported almost 102.8 metric tons in November, valued at about $5.5 billion, trade data on Jan. 11 showed. The U.S. Mint said it sold 82,500 ounces of American 1 ounce gold eagle coins in the first 11 days of January. Full-month sales would reach 235,000 ounces at that pace, the most since 1999.

SILVER

Silver sold off today on light weekend volume. At 11am PDT, Silver was trading at $29.63 per ounce, down $0.53 per ounce for the day, but up $1.01 for the week.

Other Important news that affects precious metal prices:

Consumer sentiment reached 74% in the preliminary reading for January, the highest level since May, compared with 69.9 in December, according to Friday reports on the data from the University of Michigan and Thomson Reuters.

The Commerce Department said today that after declining for four straight months, the U.S. trade deficit widened by 10.4% in November to $47.8 billion,. This is the largest trade gap since June and the biggest jump in the deficit since May. The trade deficit was well above the consensus forecast of Wall Street economists of a deficit of $44.8 billion.